Saturday, March 28, 2020

Murder

Tweet of the day: "Are you better off than you were four years ago?"

A: No

There is so much going on, as we hunker down in our houses, social distancing, living in fear and dying by the tens of thousands. America was unprepared for the pandemic, intentionally so, as our elected leadership first fired the country's pandemic experts and then watched without responding as the epidemic began to flare up in China. No preparations were made, as the President insisted US cases would quickly go from fifteen to zero and the coronavirus would vanish "like a miracle." States and municipalities did what they could but resources were not, and are not, available. There are no masks, ventilators, hospital beds. Nobody imported them, manufactured them, ordered them. Our ability to address the epidemic diminishes as medical staff are exposed to the virus, getting sick, dying. I don't need to tell you this. It's bad. It affects all of us personally.

This morning we are reading about the federal government's decision not to send medical supplies to Michigan or Washington state. In Exchange for Aid, Trump Wants Praise From Governors He Can Use in Campaign Ads

In a press conference, the President reported what he had said to Mike Pence, who leads the pandemic response team:
“I tell him — I mean I’m a different type of person — I say, 'Mike, don’t call the governor in Washington, you’re wasting your time with him. Don’t call the woman in Michigan' ... If they don’t treat you right, I don’t call. ... When they’re not appreciative to me, they’re not appreciative to the Army Corps, they’re not appreciative to FEMA, it’s not right.”
The governor of Michigan has told the press that federal officials have told medical supply vendors not to deliver critically necessary equipment to her state.

"When the federal government told us that we needed to go it ourselves, we started procuring every item we could get our hands on," [Michigan governor Gretchen Esther] Whitmer said Friday on WWJ 950AM. "What I've gotten back is that vendors with whom we had contracts are now being told not to send stuff here to Michigan. It's really concerning." Whitmer: Feds told vendors not to send medical supplies to Michigan

We are used to the president's pettiness. He surrounds himself with sycophants. He likes to be "appreciated," he cannot stand to be criticized. We know that, it is all part of the reality-TV life we live now.

But this is murder. There is nothing cute or funny about it. He's not draining the swamp or speaking for the voiceless, he is simply arranging for people to die. It's just wrong. No American life should depend on whether they or their governor "shows appreciation" for someone in Washington DC. I know there are people who will defend him, but this does not meet the standard of a modern civilized society.